Sunday, August 28, 2011

Biblical Female Teachers, Deacons, Elders, Preachers--Part I

The Bible is the final, supreme, authoritative standard for human life. This applies to all aspects of life.

In the next several blogs, we will discuss the message of the Bible concerning female teachers, deacons, elders, and preachers, all of which play a significant role throughout scripture.

To understand what the Bible teaches about this subject, several introductory thoughts are very significant. In the past several years, the bibliography on this subject is daunting, amounting to thousand well-thought out scholarly books and articles. An entire book would necessitate a complete list on this subject. Every serious biblical seeker should spend several years reading and pondering this subject. A brief study of six months or one year on this subject would merely begin the study. The thoughts on the following blogs come at the end of several years of careful study, previous articles, and spending numerous classes at my university and elsewhere. I am still in pursuit of attempting to understand all the passages involved in the Bible.

Here are some introductory thoughts.

I. The entire Bible--the Hebrew Bible and the Newer Testament--is the word of God. For example, Paul, in 2 Timothy 3:14-17, clearly declares that the Hebrew Bible is fully the word of God just like the Newer Testament. Hence, a complete study of female teachers, deacons, elders, and preachers call for a study of the entire Bible, not just the Newer Testament. A common presupposition that the Newer Testament is superior to the Hebrew Bible is a modern view of scripture, not a biblical understanding of scripture. Thus, this study involves the entire Bible.

II. Several terms in the Bible are fundamental to understand the subject under consideration. First, the word "son" in the Bible often is NOT a gender specific term, but means BOTH males and females. Each person is responsible for looking at the use of the word "son" in Hebrew and Greek concordances. Here are ONLY a few examples.
Genesis 3:16: Adam said to Eve: "in pain you shall bring forth SONS." It is obvious that "sons" here does not mean "males," but both "males and females." Here "sons" is a Hebrew idiom, which any Hebrew person in scripture would know immediately.
Genesis 10:21: "To Shem, the father of all the SONS of Eber." Obviously "sons" here does not mean "males," but both "males and females."
Genesis 11:5: "the city and tower, which the SONS of MEN built." Clearly, the "sons of men" are not males, but both males and females. Thus, correctly, the NRSV translates this "mortals."
Genesis 46:5: "The SONS of Israel carried their father Jacob, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him." Obviously "sons" cannot possibly mean males, but both males and females.
Throughout the entirely Bible, "SONS of Israel" the common Hebrew idiom for "the Israelites," and most English translations use the term "the Israelites" or "the children of Israel," certainly NOT "MALE SONS of Israel." See for just a beginning, see Exodus 1:1, 7, 9, 12, 13; 2:23, 25; 3:9, 10, 11, 13. A perusal of a concordance emphasizes this fact.
Psalm 8:4: "What is MAN that you are mindful of him,
the SON OF MAN that you care for him?"
Here "man" and "son of man" cannot possible mean "males," but all humanity, both males and females.
In conclusion, the word "son" or "sons" in the Bible is NOT a gender specific term, but often means all human beings, male and female.

III. Second, the word MAN in the Bible often is NOT gender specific. Here are a very few introductory examples. Check YOUR concordance to find all the texts relevant to this idea.
Genesis 1:26, 27: "God said: 'Let us make MAN in our image. . .
So God created MAN in his image,
in the image of God he created HIM;
MALE AND FEMALE he created them"
This text explicitly explains that MAN means MALE AND FEMALE, certainly NOT male alone.
Psalm 8:4: What is MAN that you are mindful of him." Here, MAN clearly means all humanity, not just males.
Deuteronomy 8:3=Matthew 4: "MAN does not live by bread alone." Obviously, MAN in these texts cannot mean males, but all humanity, both males and females.
1 Kings 8:46: "there is no MAN who does not sin." Clearly, this cannot mean males only, but any human being.
The examples are abundant throughout scripture. MAN throughout scripture is a non specific gender word meaning all human beings, not merely males.

III. The word BROTHER or BROTHERS or BRETHREN throughout the Bible cannot mean males only, but both males and females. Hence, many recent English translations correctly translate this term "brothers and sisters" to avoid the incorrect, unscriptural idea of males only. Here are ONLY a few examples.
Deuteronomy 15:7: "If there is among you any BROTHER in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy BROTHER." Obviously "brother" hear does not mean males, but anyone: males or females.
Joshua 1:14-15: "All the warriors among you shall cross over armed before your BROTHERS and shall keep them, until the Lord gives rest to your BROTHERS as well as you." Many more recent English translations read: "kindred," to avoid the incorrect idea that this means males only. "Brothers" here obviously means all the people of Israel: males and females.
Psalm 133:1: "How very good and pleasant it is
when BROTHERS live together in unity!"
Clearly, this cannot possibly mean males only, but all people: males and females.
Throughout the Newer Testament, Paul and other speakers and writers address all Christians, male and female, as "Brothers." This is an idiomatic term used throughout scripture, NOT a gender specific term meaning "males." As a few reminding examples, see Acts 15:3, 23, 36, 40; 28:14-15; Romans 1:13; 7:1, 4; 8:12; 10:1;
12:1; 1 Corinthians 1:10; 2:1. 3:1; 4:6; and numerous other texts. Recent English translations correctly read "Brothers and Sisters" to avoid the incorrect idea that this might mean "males only."

These introductory suggestions initiate a study of biblical female teachers, deacons, elders, and preachers according to the teaching of the Bible. Following blogs go into detail about each of these terms with relevant biblical texts.

I think about leadership language for both men and women in the N.T. Consider, for example 1 Thessalonians 5:12: "Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you."

This passage contains the Greek word PROHISTEMI, which may be translated "be at the head (of), rule, direct, manage, conduct."[1] Some have taken it to mean that leaders (noticeably undefined here) have ruling authority over other Chritians. In each of the eight N.T. occurrences of the word, however, contexts force selection of the more appropriate lexcical dfinition "be concerned about, care for, give aid . . . Busy oneself with, engage in."[2] The noun form of the word is used of a female, Phoebe, in Romans 16:2 where she is Paul's PROSTATIS (Greek, "protectress"). But would anyone claim that she exerted any "authority" over Paul? Also in Titus 3:8, 14, the word is used in the sense of "devoting oneself to."

I the eight occurences of the word in the New Testament "the verb has the New Testament primary sense of both "to lead" and "to care for," and this agrees with the distinctinve nature of office in the New Testament, since according to Luke 22:26 the one who is chief . . . is to be as he who serves." [3]